Kanika Jindal_HRLP028_Transformational Industrial Relations

Insights on the Maruti Case

Indian automobile sector has been enjoying a super-fast development at an increasing rate of 33.9% per year. Automobile industry is currently contributing about 5% of the total GDP of India and is very important for the development of India. Thus stability in this sector is not only very important for the particular company but also plays a pivotal role in the GDP of the country.

Also, globally India has been accepted as a good manufacturing base. But, workers protests have been one of the top of the agenda of the Indian automobile industry. Being a democratic nation India is suffering from various kinds of worker strikes and, unrests since her birth. Such acts of violence have tarnished the image of India, especially in view of the economic slowdown.

One such case is the Maruti Suzuki Manesar plant case which has been unimaginable for most of us. To analyze the root cause of this outburst it is important to first analyze the contribution of different stakeholders to the problem:

• Japanese management was more work oriented and there was no emotional sensitivity towards the workers.
• Though the Indian management was a great source of inspiration at the start of the plant, they failed to understand the workforce well. The communication channel was very poor and they were too aligned to the Japanese way of thinking. There was too much domination by the Japanese culture.
• Managers and supervisors carried an unfavorable attitude towards the workers.
• Associates lacked trust within the management and supervisors, and were too young and immature.
• Interpersonal relations at different levels and the work environment were not conducive.

From the above reasons we find out that the main and ultimate reason behind the worker unrest was communication gap and lack of trust between top management and workers.

If the workers were motivated enough to follow the rules and regulations and maintain a certain level of productivity, it would have lead the Company to success. This could have been achieved if the management was transparent with the workers and helped them fulfill their aspirations. In this connection we may focus on Victor Vroom’s expectancy theory, which deals with motivation and shows a path how managers can secure a highly motivated workforce.

Firstly the top management should have found out what the workers really wanted and what is it that would present highest value to them. This is what we call ‘Valence’. Secondly, managers should have created instrumentality, which means that the managers should have convinced the employees about work related expectations from them, which would give them the desired rewards or value. Finally, managers should have ensured that the employees had the perfect conditions and necessary capabilities to accomplish the given task.

Also talking about perfect working conditions, I feel that there is greater need of labor reforms in India, which can provide

-          Extension of working hours, to compensate for lower productivity

-          Allowing adjustments in workforce, in terms of providing the right to hire, assign work, reward, promote, transfer, and adjust work-force as managerial rights

-          Providing Employee State Insurance scheme: For example, certain employers incur expenses towards Employee Insurance Scheme (ESI). However there are no ESI hospitals except for a few clinics which have been developed, thus forcing the companies to shell out additional expenses on labor welfare apart from ESI.

Conclusion:

As the number of middle class people is rising at a rapid speed the market of small size automobile in India is also rising. Moreover Indian automobile market has a bright future. That is why almost all the world leading automobile manufacturer has started their facilities inside India. India herself is a business hub in south Asia, where 22% of the world’s total population lives and 10% of the world’s wealth is located. Thus there is enormous scope to prosperity to the key automobile players who can cope against the unavoidable circumstances such as work slow-down, worker unrest and strike. Some of the efficiency factors that can play vital roles in the success of automobile players are: labor productivity, labor flexibility, resource availability, establishment of export markets, successful industrial relations policy, ethical and tactical industrial relations, understanding implications from Government policies, etc. 

Kanika Jindal
HRLP028

Kanika Jindal_HRLP028_Self Leadership_25 Oct 2012

This was another great session by Anil Sir.  In this session I understood the correlation between age and creativity. Creativity is extremely high in a child and gets blurr as we grow up. This decrease is mainly attributed to our upbringing and schooling, which only encourages behavior that is accepted by the society. But it is still very important to be creative as it helps us to come out with new ideas and solutions.

We discussed the key elements of a decision making process

• Define the frame: This is the most important question as it helps you in defining your vision
• Collect meaningful and reliable information
• Define creative and doable options
• Use logic to evaluate the alternatives (risk-return analysis)
• Tradeoffs and values
• Prepare for implementation

We did an exercise where we had to get in the groups and become different things. This was mainly to bring out the creative side in us. It was an amazing exercise. My biggest learning from that exercise was that, I can change my being at any particular point of time. I can be a child, I can be Buddha, I can be happy or I can be sad depending upon my wish and will. Basically I can be anyone at anytime.

I also learnt the 5 significant fears that a human being has – fear of failure, criticism, ambiguity, lack of time and resource, loss of self image, starved sensibility. And how these fears prevent us from being creative.

We did an exercise where I could identify my personal mission statement. This gives a direction to my life and gives me the strength to deal with all the negativity around me and focus only on my mission.

In the end we discussed the Ladder of Inference which describes our reflexive use of inference and judgment as if they were statements of fact. We often take our beliefs and inferences as statements of fact and often because of that we find it difficult to change certain things in us.

What is the ladder of inference? It is -

• Our beliefs are the truth
• The truth is obvious
• Our beliefs are based on real data
• The data we select are real data
• We have all the data we need

Kanika Jindal_HRLP028_Self Leadership_Oct 2012

The second session with Anil Sir was amazing. In this session we talked about Emotional Intelligence. EI has two aspects Self Awareness and the Interpersonal Skills (listening and understanding, and relating and building trust). In the session I understood that EI is not inherited. It is dependent on our upbringing and nurturing. What we pick up in our childhood creates our Emotional Intelligence. The best part is that EI can be changed at any point of time.

In the alter ego exercise, I realized that to be understood correctly it is very important to structure our thoughts and communicate effectively. I also realized that deep listening is another important part of communication. During the session, I was clearly able to identify what my present life is all about.

The last part of the session was particularly good. In our group we shared some really personal issues which we had never shared with each other before. This class gave me a community with whom I can share anything in life. I also realized however different we may seem to be to the outside world, we as human beings deal with very similar issues in life.

Regards
Kanika Jindal

Kanika Jindal_HRLP028_Self Leadership_May 2013

Self Leadership is the discovery of my inner self, my true being. The most important realization from this session was that I am not my body, not my emotions, not even the knowledge that I have. This raises a very important question - who am I ?

But this also opens up the unlimited world of possibility for me, where I am not a person with some limited traits or characteristics. This gives me the freedom to drop all the negative conversations that I have about myself which stop me from doing things that I really want to do in life. I can rather create some positive conversations about myself which empower me, because ultimately everything is a story. I have the power to bring a change in the world. Today I might not have the knowledge and resources to bring about that change. But that can be acquired over time. What is important is to be authentic about what is so right now and take responsibility for it. 

I can choose to be, whoever I want to be without worrying about the past or future and live the present moment as if this was the last moment of my life. Another important realization from this session was, how my environment shows up in front of me is a matter of 'who I am being'. If I have all the goodness inside me, my surroundings and the people I meet will also be good.  

Today's session was also very inspiring. During the first exercise I witnessed the power of communicating through eyes. It is the most authentic form of communication and just by looking into the other person's eye I could get the experience of a person, exactly the way it is with nothing altered. I felt closely connected to that person and could get things that were not even being said.

The other important take away from this session was listening. If I want to be heard, I have to first provide that kind of listening. Also I realized, if I could just listen to a person without changing or fixing anything about him/her, it could create wonders in that relationship and the relationship could be taken to a whole new level. Similarly, the way I touch a person can also define our relationship. Giving your love to people, by hugging or just gently touching them, can be the building block of a relationship. Unconditional love, where I am not expecting anything in return, gives me the power to accept a person the way he/she is and the way he/she is not.